Quote:
Originally Posted by jefgodesky
Wow--I guess Bill was right! We've been working with Bill Maxwell on the next iteration of the rules, and he cautioned me against putting out anything that we haven't gone over too thoroughly. I said most people understood the idea of a beta and open source, and "publish early, publish often," but he said we'd get some bad reviews on early stuff that'd probably stick with us for good. I hope this one review doesn't kill off the whole project before it even gets off the ground, though, and I hope people reading this will take the open source spirit to heart and offer their suggestions to make it better.
A lot of this is stuff we're actually already addressing. I appreciate your review, Wil, I really do; it gives us a very good list of points to hone in on as development continues. We originally wanted to get something out as quickly as possible so that we could involve the general public as quickly as possible, so I love to see points like these, they're what we were really hoping for. I just hope Bill's prophecy doesn't come completely true, and people reading this will be willing to come back and give us another look once we released version 1.0. |
I completely understand, and in my ratings I didn't really include anything that was obviously WIP. Excepting, of course, some things that even a beta should have (like more elaboration on weapons or equipment).
But please, please for the love of Pete...cut back on the rhetoric in the final text. That's just a personal opinion, but larger companies (such as White Wolf) have weathered putting strong political or ideological messages in games but a smaller company might not. Your ideology might be
right for all I know, but most people probably won't consider that.
The key I think should be accessibility - pages and pages of "movement talk" is likely going to turn off some people who otherwise might be interested. They might have no interest whatsoever in experiencing the world the way you envision, and that's only right because once they buy the book the world is, essentially, theirs. Delivering something that makes people go, "Wow, those are some cool ideas" without inundating them might get you better results. For example, I have a keen interest in what might be called "prehistory" - one of my favorite books is Robert Holdstock's
Mythago Wood, and the idea of archetypal myths going back tens of thousands of years to cultures we have just scraps of knowledge about fascinates me. My favorite rpg is
Tribe 8 - which tackles many of the same themes
The Fifth World does. Tribe 8 accomplishes the collapse of modern civilization via supernatural means, so the sudden collapse makes a little more sense. I have no real interest, however, in neo-tribalism, eco-anarchism or any other related movement and discovering the bulk of the game dealt with those issues - without a lot of Cool Stuff independent of them - left a slightly negative impression. To myself, and a lot of other people, the collapse described in the game is going to really push the limits of credibility.
Finally, maybe I missed something but it seems like the game's namesake and the interaction with the Mayan calendar (which is what piqued my interest in the very beginning of the game) seems to have no solid relationship with the world as it winds up existing. Maybe you guys have some more stuff developed, but coming up with some unique take on the transition from one world to the other might be cool.